During the past several decades, hazardous waste and nuclear waste has been, in many situations, solidified in barrels and disposed of by being placed in the ground in landfills. Today, regulatory requirements mandate that such waste be extensively characterized to demonstrate compliance with all of the waste acceptance criteria of an accepting disposal site. Such characterization must show the waste to be in full compliance with the regulated physical, chemical and radiological characteristics permitted by the disposal facility. Thus, it is frequently necessary to be able to check the state of waste materials, such as nuclear waste materials, throughout individual drums. To date, no arrangement exists for doing this safely with minimal disturbance of material within the drums, especially if the waste is a solidified material such as a cemented monolith.